www.unbarred.co.uk
2000
GARY NUMAN
YOU can't help but feel a bit sorry for Gary Numan, he's spent decades in the industry, released album after album,
yet still critics hammer him and the so-
called fans are even worse.
New album, Pure, is one of his best releases so far and may finally stop pop-TV forcing him to churn out "Cars" and "Are friends electric" for the umpteenth time, rather than new material.
Pure's packed with emotion and so it should be, Gary hardly made it easy
for himself:
"This was a massively important record - pivotal in fact. My relationship with the
press has improved. And I'm now seen as influential which has made my credibility soar.
"I want to be seen as being a viable ongoing act for today and still relevant. I want to be in touch with what's going on in year 2000.
"Yes, I had greater ambitions, I mean everyone wants to be number one but the most important thing is to be seen as an on-going act.
"There's been more interest in this record than any of others and now came the point where I had to justify all the comments, so this album had to deliver. If this was good then I had secured career for some years to come - otherwise I'm a forty-two year-old has-been and all the comments and interest would have been wasted."
Add to this the tragedy of his baby dying and this isn't just your average album. However, you can tell there's a bit of relief that it's now all over, he's got interviews booked throughout the day, but sits for half an hour with unbarred, quite happy, joking and being very relaxed about it all.
"The fact is I was such a grumpy bloke for a lot of the time during the making of Pure - my wife put up with murder really, but now that it's done, it almost feels worth it.
"I feel quite good about it, even the couple of songs about the baby, it does feel nice to be able to write something in a record that's well received. If the reviews had been really bad then maybe would have soured it.
"I didn't listen to it for a couple of months, but now I listen to it and am quite alright with it all."
And has it put him off?
"I think I want to make further records, the next one won't be as hard as this one. With this one, I felt I was trying to fix the last fifteen years and put myself back in the frame again.
"But I'd be writing songs for a hobby if I didn't have a record contract, so I don't really think about not doing it."
But new critical acclaim has re-launched his career, the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Damon Albarn telling the kids that this Gary Numan bloke was the man that influenced them.
"Yes, there is a new type of fan. When I played the Brixton Academy, there was a huge amount of people there that weren't even born when "Cars" was out first time.
"With Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins and the Foo Fighters all talking about you and mentioning you as influential you have to expect a certain number of fans to sort of check you out to find out what you're all about.
"So, actually for the first time in a long time I'm actually broadening my fan-base, the sales are now picking up again - they're nothing like what used to be, but it's still a lot for me."
It's here that a nerve's touched; I ask if it's the fans that have taken him through the tough patches like the critics mocking him.
"The fans are no driving force. Okay, they're quite often a nice little boost once in a while. But to be perfectly honest, fans are sometimes as brutally unkind to you as they are kind. Some of the worst reviews I've ever had and some of worst comments I've ever had have come from fans. It's actually very depressing.
"What drives me on is my own sense of…… I'm a very driven man. It's much better now, but in the 80s and early 90s some really unpleasant shit was written about me. What drove me on, more than anything was revenge really, the idea to stick two fingers up and say 'fuck you all.' It was the desire to really prove something.
"I like writing stuff and putting songs out, but I don't want people to stop it for you - saying 'you've had it' and saying stuff just to damage your career, so you just fight back. It should be a bit more pleasant than that, there's no need for it to be so nasty as that.
"Some people get crushed by it, they get too much bad press and they just give up. But for me, each bit of bad press has made me even more determined to keep on going. I have a sort of tunnel vision.
"The critics have fuelled my fire rather than dampening it. And now it's all paid off. I have credibility now that I couldn't even manage a few years ago."